Key Idea - Technological advances in the modes of production
lead to changes in the social relations of production
A methodological approach to the study of
society, economics & history.
Analysis of the causes of developments and changes in human
society by how humans collectively produce the necessities of life.
Assumption: In order for human beings to survive and continue
existence, it is necessary for them to produce and reproduce the
material requirements of life
To occur people must enter into social relations (production relations)
Division of labour
Owners of capital.
Determines type of society
Society has moved through different modes of production.
Character of the production relations is determined by the character of the productive forces
From Primitive communism to capitalism.
Production relations are the economic base.
Superstructure forms. The political/ideological superstructure of society
How people organise society is determined by the economic base and the
relations that arise from its mode of production.
How society is organised. Base & Superstructure
Key Idea - The economic base supports the ideological superstructure
Super Structure: culture, religion, politics and all other aspects of humanity's social consciousness
Changes in in economic, technological, material factors, clashes
of material interests are examined for cause.
CRITIQUE - oversimplification of the nature of society
Influence of ideas & culture are just as important
as the economic base. Marx's Superstructure.
If the superstructure has no
influence why does Marx
expose it at length?
Engels said Marx never pertained this. The production and
reproduction of real life is the determinant of history not purely an economic
determinism.
If superstructure influences the base
it can't be argued that the history of
society is based on class conflict.
Chicken & egg arguement
Singer - Marx saw the economic base as real.
Humanity's defining characteristic are its means of production and thus the only way for
man to free himself from oppression is for him to take control of the means of production.
Goal of history.
Superstructure acts as tools of history
Popper - The concept of Marx's historical
method & its application are unfalsifiable.
Earlier work was proven falsifiable when the predictions did not occur.
Reinterpreted the theory & evidence by later Marxists.
Destroys scientific claim.
Society has moved through different modes of production.
Assumptions
The basis of human society is how humans work on nature to produce the means of subsistence.
There is a division of labour into social classes (relations of production) based on property ownership where
some people live from the labour of others.
The system of class division is dependent on the mode of production
The mode of production is based on the level of the productive forces
Society moves from stage to stage when the dominant class is displaced by a new emerging class
Takes place in the superstructure of society. Revolution.
Materialist Conception of History
History is made as a result of struggle between different social classes rooted in the underlying economic base.
Historical determinism - events are predestined
Marx was only roposing a guideline to historical research
Not a grand philosophy of history
Importance.
Revolution in human thought, and a break from previous ways of understanding the underlying basis of
change within various human societies
CRITIQUE: human history is simply a series of accidents. (Weber)
Influences
Doctoral research on the philosophy of Epicurus
Adam Smith
Popular philosophy of his time that development of human society has moved through a series of stages